Originally Posted by BillyMac
(Post 902016)
I hope that it can be both enjoyable, and useful, which is why the Forum is the first thing that I go to when I get up in the morning, and the first thing I go to when get home from work every afternoon.
However, if the powers to be, or the Forum membership, decides that this Forum will be 100% serious, then I can go along with that. The old NFHS forum, that some of us posted on, was a 100% serious forum, and those that posted on that know that I was, and can be, serious all the time when it's expected.
But when I log on and see a few tidbits of off the topic material from other Forum members, maybe funny, or an inside joke, or something else along those same lines, then I feel that I have the right to join in. Yes I post these tidbits more frequently than others, I was not aware that there was Forum limit to such postings. My son is a sociologist, who specializes in popular culture, so I have a interest in popular culture as well, and will occasionally spice up my posts with some popular culture references (television shows, song lyrics, quotations, etc.)
Basketball, for me, has always been about fun. First as a player, then as a coach, and now as an official. I do realize that as one of only a few paid participants on the basketball court, that I must take the game, and it is a game, more seriously than the players, and I do, but officiating is still fun for me.
When my local officiating colleagues get together for a board meeting, or for some adult beverages after our games, or even if it's just for a few minutes before, after, or between games, we have fun. We tell jokes, we yank each other's chains, insult each other in fun, etc. I feel the same sense of kinship with all of the veteran posters on this Forum. I accept all of you, warts, and all, and hopefully you can accept me, warts, lots of warts, and all. And I've always tried to be polite, and when I've screwed up, and, for some reason, have been impolite, I readily apologize.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, my life changed, for the worst, about ten years ago. An encouraged career change (luckily I got a golden parachute), a divorce, financial problems related to the career change, the divorce, and the stock market recession. I developed some serious medical problems, and my daughter developed a serous, possibly fatal disease. I became clinically depressed, and had suicidal thoughts. What saved my life? What kept me going? My three adult children, two with spouses. The Catholic Church, and my faith in Jesus Christ. A great doctor who prescribed lots of medication for me. And basketball officiating. Yes that right, basketball officiating has helped to save my life. It's been a long road, but I'm no longer clinically depressed, and I'm no longer suicidal. I still have problems with obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety, so I will have to be on the medication for the rest of my life, but that's a small price to pay, and I'm a lot healthier, both mentally, and physically, now than I was several years ago.
Try to separate the silly stuff from the serious stuff that I post. I'm a thirty-two year veteran official, who has, over the years, worked games on every level, recreation, travel, AAU, middle school, freshman, junior varsity, varsity, boys, girls, men. I've served on my local board's training committees, both of them, rules, and mechanics. I am a retired middle school science teacher, honored as my school's teacher of the year, and as a finalist for the Connecticut science teacher of the year. I've got a lot to offer this Forum. I know the game of basketball, how to play it, how to coach it (twenty-five years coaching middle school basketball), and how to officiate it. I know rules, and mechanics, and, most importantly I know how to teach others how to be a good basketball official. I hope that I serve, and can continue to serve, as a valuable, contributing, member of the Forum.
I live, alone (two of my three adult children live out of state, and I have no other family), with my cat, and two chickens (pretty pathetic, huh?), and, although I do have a few hobbies (gardening, raising chickens, kayaking, astronomical photography, officiating basketball) to keep me busy, posting on the Forum is one of the highlights of my day. Please don't take this away from me. Yes I can tone it down, but I only, and always, have good intentions.
Me too. Unfortunately, my brain filter doesn't seem to work as well as most, and it's often quite easy to just hit "save", or "submit reply".
|
